Cheshire, Lanesborough Consider Sharing Roads Chief
The Selectmen have had difficulty finding a suitable candidate to fill the spot being left by retiring DPW Superintendent Peter Lefebvre.
The plan had been for the new person to train with the retiring Superintendent Peter Lefebvre — but his last day is only weeks away now.
Lanesborough Town Manager Paul Seiloff appeared at last Tuesday's meeting with a proposal to share a superintendent and have one assistant in each town.
"I'm a big proponent for working in municipal agreements," he told the board. "We can't merge towns,but we have to work together on services and things like that."
He gave the Baker Hill Road District as an example: the district contracts with the town to maintain the connector road between Routes 7 and 8, including plowing and patching.
Personnel departures and openings like this one offer an opportunity to shape a new position and work together, he said.
Sieloff put forward Lanesborough's DPW Director William Decelles as an obvious. Decelles, he said, is experienced having worked with Lanesborough for some 30 years and was willing to take a look at how the position would work.
"This is a skeleton proposal ... we were trying to figure out how we price something," Sieloff said in handing the board an outline. "We figured $85,000 for salary and benefits."
He said there wouldn't be any immediate savings, and Lanesborough would be losing its director two or three days a week to Cheshire. But as time went on, efficiencies and sharing of equipment and costs would likely appear.
"The main benefit is the synergy of working together," Sieloff said. "Can you share equipment, can you share help, can you share grants? ... You'll see greater savings accruing over time as efficiencies are found."
The towns already do some mutual aid but how the two road crews might be used outside their respective towns and the responsibilities of the two assistants and superintendent would have to be further explored.
"The major component is you have access to one of the most experienced DPW directors in Berkshire County," Sieloff said. "Or you'll get somebody underexperienced or not form Berkshire County. [Decelles] can step right in on that."
Lefebvre suggested that the superintendent should be an engineer. Sieloff and Town Administrator Mark Webber described that as the "gold standard" and thought that could be discussed in the future when another opening occurs.
Cheshire had already set a level of $42,390 for a new superintendent, Sieloff noted, and each assistant would be responsible for their town under the superintendent and so would get a $5,000 stipend. Lanesborough would likely be responsible for benefits and insurance, which Cheshire would reimburse.
"It's a significant responsibility to take over two towns like this," he said, as the reason for boosting the superintendent's salary.
Selectman Paul Astorino thought it probably "the wave of the future" but his board colleague Carol Francesconi wondered about the cost for both the town's share of the superintendent's salary and benefits and for the foreman.
"We haven't made any decisions and we have to look at all our options before we make a decision," she said. The town, in fact, accepted two more applications for the post that night.
"You have a lot of thinking to do about it," agreed Sieloff.
But with the clock ticking down to retirement, Lefebvre thought it worth exploring.
"I think it can work but I think it will take a lot of work with the two towns," he said.
Tags: DPW, highway,
